Figure 1
The flow chart presents three sections along the right margin, indicating the phases: “SUPPLIER SELECTION” aligned with STEPS 1–4, “ORDER ALLOCATION” aligned with STEP 5, and “SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS” aligned with STEP 6. The flowchart begins at the top with STEP 1, three horizontally aligned rectangles appear at the top, labeled “Identifying D M s”, “Identifying Criteria (measurable and forecastable)”, and “Identifying Suppliers”. Arrows lead from Identifying D M s, and Identifying Criteria points downward toward STEP 2, rectangle labeled “Weighting of criteria” connects to an oval directly beneath it labelled “Linear B W M”. From each of the rectangle in step 1, an arrow leads to “Supplier Score for each criterion (historical and new suppliers)”, with two bullet points “Measurable Criteria S subscript nk”, and“Forecastable criteria S subscript nkm”. Arrows from each point in STEP 2 lead to STEP 3 rectangle labeled “Total score (TS subscript nm) of each supplier for each D M”. A single arrow continues downward into STEP 4, connecting to another rectangle labeled “Final score (TS subscript s) of each supplier”. From this box, an arrow enters STEP 5, where a larger rectangle displays two internal lines of text: “1st Stage: minimization of the Total Purchasing Cost (T P C)” followed by “2nd Stage: maximization of the Total score (TS subscript s) of suppliers”. Directly beneath this rectangle is an oval labelled “Two-stage linear programming”. On the left, the dotted line extends from Weighting of criteria in STEP 2 to “Changing the weight of criteria” in STEP 6, beneath which an oval is placed labelled “Non-linear B W M”. On the right, the dotted line from Supplier Score for each criterion in STEP 2 leads to “Changing the weight of scenarios” in STEP 6.Complete structure of the proposed model. Note(s): Black arrows represent the flow of information from Steps 1–6; grey arrows in Step 1 show that criteria should be selected after having identified DMs and potential suppliers; dashed lines link the sensitivity analysis in Step 6 with previous steps. Source: Created by authors